Sane? I Don't Think So
by Evelyn Rogue
Summary: In which Commissioner Gordon rants about the sanity of Gotham's local denizens. (One shot)


Gotham city, how to describe it?

A dingy old town with worn out buildings, corrupted denizens, and bat problem?

No. That might be how the outside world saw it, but the Gothomites themselves viewed it from a whole other perspective.

To the townsfolk, it was an old but prosperous city; with a few bad apples but typically good people; guarded by a knight in shining armor.

Many people held this ideal close to heart, as wrong as it may have seemed at times; and James Gordon was no exception.

The Commissioner saw hope when the city was plunged into darkness, continually waiting for the coming dawn. Sure the bad days may be more ample and frequent than the good; but in the end, it didn't matter. Not to him, and not to most of the others who called the city their home.

It was a particularly chilled night in Gotham City, the clouds shrouding the moon in a ghastly veil as they often did this time of year.

However, while some viewed the clouds as a frustration, it made the Bat signal much more obvious in the night sky.

Usually, depending on where the mysterious vigilante was, it took him under twenty minutes to respond, but the fluttering of a cape in under five minutes was a welcome surprise.

The commissioner spun around, tan cloak snapping in the breeze, but wasn't met with the black clad bat, but rather the clown colored Superman.

The air electrified to his right as the flash skidded to a stop, sending a small wave of pebbles and grit off the lip of the building.

A wisp of green in the shape of a man slowly drifted through the concrete roof, the martian manhunter solidifying to the right of superman.

The thumping of feet, echoed from the left, a green glow glimmered through the night air as the green lantern lighted on the roof, a green bubble formed from his ring escorting the green arrow.

The entire league was present, on this roof, under the irradescent glow of the Batsignal, and to say the GCPD commissioner was surprised would be somewhat of an understatement. Of a multitude of questions bubbling up in Gordan's mind, only one popped out of his mouth.

"Where's Batman?"

"Oh, don't tell me you're one of those 'stay out of my city' types!" The flash groaned.

The irony of that statement wasn't lost on everyone.

"Kid, everyone here is that type of person." Gordon deadpanned. Not many Gothamites welcomed outsiders into their city.

"Batman's away for a few days, so we agreed to keep an eye on things here." Superman sighed.

"Ah, of course. I vaguely remember him mentioning that." He replied flatly.

He did, but it was one of those passing comments that Batman muttered while falling backwards off the building.

"So what's the emergency?" Superman demanded quickly.

"Breakout at Arkham. The inmates are holding the nurses and doctors captive."

"Ah. The crazies. You must run into a lot of those huh?" Lantern asked, green ring pulsing against his white glove in what was probably laughter.

"You could say that. Probably more than I can count." Gordon shrugged, pulling his overcoat a little more tightly around his shoulders to obstruct the nipping wind.

"If I may ask, how on earth are you still sane? I mean all things considered... " Flash muttered. Central City could be a mad house at times, but he'd never encountered something quite as hostile or wild as Gotham.

The commissioner blanched.

"What do you mean _all things considered_?" The commissioner grunted crossing his arms defensively.

"Well. Uh- he means that. Um. Gotham seems like it's filled with crazies. And um. kind of a lost cause." Lantern filled in.

"First off. No one in this city is 'sane'. Not me, not the mayor, not the citizens walking on the streets, not even _Batman_ himself. We're all insane." He vehemently declared, turning the signal off.

"In fact, our belief that there's hope for this forsaken city is _why_ we're insane. Any sane person would have left Gotham to the crime lords, to the rabble, but . not. Us."

Gordon leaned in Lantern's face, and Superman realized the situation was going downhill. He needed to diffuse it.

"We didn't-."

"Yes you did." Gordon relaxed some, but a passionate fire still lurked in his hazel eyes. "We may not be deranged, like Harvey Dent, or Sadistic like the Joker, but in one way or another... We've all gone off the deep end , and the only reason we stick around, is because we believe in this little thing called hope." Gordon turned his back and glanced at Bullock for back up.

The rather rotund man picked up the slack.

"If you wanna keep what's left of your mental sanity before Bat's gets back, don't let this city suck you in. It will chew every last one of you up, and spit you back out like handburger meat. You'll become just like me, Gordon, or Batman. Zombified just like the rest of us, and that ain't a pretty picture." Bullock boldly poked Superman in the chest. "Just a friendly word of advice." Bullock tipped his hat.

"Oh, and if you ever insult my city again. You aren't welcome back." Gordon added, now feeling better that the new comers were in their place.

"Now. A couple of deranged Gothomites are still holding a mental asylum hostage. I believe you all should get going."

The justice league sat there in stunned surprise. Maybe Gordon was right. Maybe there wasn't a sane, but maybe that wasn't a bad thing.

As they left the scene, Lantern glanced at Superman.

"I guess being scary's not just a Batman thing, but a Gotham thing. Remind me never to get on the commissioner's bad side."

Bullock laughed quietly, glancing at Gordon.

"Hey, Jim. You got 'em scared silly."

"That was the goal."

"You give good ol' bats a run for his money."

Gordon chuckled dryly.

"I'll never be _that_ good."

-A.N.-

 **Darkwolf, here. So I've been stuck in a bit of a writers... Disinterest. I wanted to do something random and unconnected with my other stories, so I tried this one shot.** **I got inspiration from-**

 _Reminisce_ by Redbaron71

 **So check it out. I hope to have some my other stories updated soon, so I'll see you then.**


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